These details come as a courtesy of my officer, KimboSlice and is obtained from the TankSpot forums (which is reposted on MMO Champion). Figured Iâ€™d share it (summarized) with everyone who is waiting for maintenance to expire (and who don’t actively check MMO Champion or Tankspot).

Yes, you will need 3 tanks to handle the DoT rotation. All 3 will need heals.

Each Snobold that is out there increases his damage by 15%.

The direct damage from Impale will hit for ~35000.

Stomp on melee from 9k to 12k

Acidmaw and Dreadscale

Imperative for players to spread out.

Acid hits for 5000 every 2 seconds.

Burning bile is 9000 damage every 2 seconds to players within 10 yards.

It is expected that if one enrages, it will be a wipe. Therefore, both snakes may have to be taken down together. Not sure of this, but keep it in mind.

Whatever happened to that third snake?

Icehowl

Arctic breath does 30000 damage over 5 seconds. I suggest assigning healers to the left or right of Icehowl to help reduce increase survivability.

Random whirlwind on melee from 10k to 14k

Lord Jaraxxus

Touch of Jaraxxus inflicts ~4000 damage over 12 seconds which causes players to be affected by Curse of the Nether (AoE dot). Possible decurse?

Mistressâ€™ Kiss: Next spell with a cast time gets that school interrupted for 8 seconds and causes 8000+ damage.

Incinerate Flesh needs 85000 healing instead of 60000 to remove it.

Burning Inferno (Incinerate Flesh after itâ€™s not removed) ticks for 8000 damage a second for 5 seconds (Yeah, thatâ€™s a wipe)

Pain Spike from the Mistress does 100% of a targetâ€™s health over time

Legion Flame now ticks for 12000

Fel Lightning from 10k to 12k

Faction Champions

Spells and abilities are more potent.

Shaman LHW from 20k to 60k

Paladin Holy Light from 50k to 80k

Warlock Corruptionf rom 18k to 24k

Expect the trend to continue with the other class abilities.

Valâ€™kyr Twins

Touch of Light (or Dark): Inflicts 4000 damage to players of the opposite essence every second. For example, Touch of Light will do ~4000+ damage to players under the effect of dark Essence every second. Light touched players will not take any damage.

Power of the Twins: +20% damage and hit, 10% attack speed if Twins are too close.

Unleashed Light/Dark orb hits increased from 9000 to 15000.

Anubâ€™arak

Leeching swarm ticks for 20% health instead of 10%

Extra add: Nerubian Ice Darter (No other details)

There might be some more surprises tonight as we head into the Coliseum. If thereâ€™s anything else you or your raid group notices, I encourage you to post comments to reflect that. As I experience the encounters myself, Iâ€™ll do a follow up post later on with more healing specific tips on getting through them.

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s been done. Your main tank is dead. Your healing corps is decimated. It seems as though your stealthers continue to be found and shredded. Plate armor is sundered and scattered across the battlefield. The clothwearers torn apart with nothing left aside from their robes.

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a wipe.

WhatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the best course of action you can take to assist your raid?

Suiciding yourself and wiping along with them.

DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t give me the rallying cries of Ã¢â‚¬Å“Mimiron will never take me alive!Ã¢â‚¬Â either. You canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t solo a boss unless heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s within one or two spell casts of death. How many times have I witnessed a player single handedly declare victory against a raid boss? I can count that number on one hand.

So donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be a hero unless you can actually do it. HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s how you can make yourself useful when a wipeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s called. Ever wondered what the fastest way to die on each boss was in Ulduar?

Oh and a special note to healers. When a wipe is called, there is thing that you have to actually do that can help hasten the process.

Stop fracking healing!

Flame Leviathan

Wipes when: YouÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re down to 3 choppers, no tanks, and maybe a few demolishers. Unless the bucket of bolts is at a ridiculously low level, youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re done.

Methods: Jump out and close within melee range of the boss. If the Flame Vent doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t get you, the rockets will.

Ignis

Wipes when: Main tank is dead with no other alternatives or when a Construct gets pulled into the raid and gets stupidly detonated taking out the entire crew.

Methods: Jump into a scorch. Cast a spell before Flame Jets connects. Hug a Brittle construct before blowing it up.

Razorscale

Wipes when: No tanks are alive and that big honkinÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ Titan guy does what Right Said Fred sings by doing more than a little turn on the catwalk. Yes, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve seen pickup raids demolished by that one trash mob. Also consider a bailout when an off tank isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t able to tank quick enough and the debuffs continue to stack too high on the main tank.

Methods: Go die in a fire. Literally. The blue fire will do the trick. Give big honkinÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ Titan guy a hug. If itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s phase 2, the plan is to try to pop a breath mint into RazorÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s mouth by getting in front of him. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m sure heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d appreciate some juicy fruit when youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re being blasted with his Flame Breath.

Deconstructor

Wipes when: Completely pounds the crap out of your main tank. Or when Joe Paladin forgets to run out of the raid with a light bomb. Also happens when Deconstructor wolfs down some grilled repair bot burgers. Oh yes, and if your raid forgot to eat their wheaties this morning and managed to close in on the enrage timer.

Methods: See that guy thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s glowing white? Give him a big hug. LetÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not forget the guy in black and purple either. Run to him! Tantrums, when they occur, will auto-slaughter the raid.

Iron Council

Wipes when: One of the tanks gets Falcon (Fusion) Punched. Raid eats a green rune and is too slow getting out of it. Anytime those Iron Council folks are basking in blues of glory. ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a multitude of causational factors that could lead to a wipe.

Methods: Do everything I mentioned in the last paragraph. Oh, and hug the small Iron Dwarf. HeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the lonely one of the bunch. Gets frequently picked on all the time. When heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s doing that Overload thing, heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s just trying to unload his problems. It doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t hurt.

Wipes when: Either the arena team doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t hold out long enough or the gauntlet team is too slow. In phase 3, it happens because a tauntÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not quick enough.

Methods: During the second phase, if youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re gauntlet, do run into the line of fire. Do stand next to the guy with the fire shield icon above him. If youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re in the arena, make some friends. During the third phase, dive into the lightning streams.

Freya

Wipes when: Have you heard the phrase:

Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh what the frack. Who killed the Stormlasher/Snaplasher/Water elemental before the others were down?Ã¢â‚¬Â

Yeah. Happens to us. Too anxious on the trigger finger. AoEing detonators is also a very bad ideaÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

Methods: Ã¢â‚¬Â¦But AoEing detonators leads to a speedy death. If itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s on Ã¢â‚¬Ëœshrooms, look for the player who is flashing lightning and stand next to them. Lashers are a bit of a pain to die to however. FreyaÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s one of the worse bosses to wipe on because it can take a while for everyone to die.

Mimiron

Wipes when: I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t even know where to start. Missing tanks? Nuked healers? Not enough DPS? It could be any number or combination.

Methods: HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a quick list.

Phase 1: Run into land mines

Phase 2: Get up close to the boss. Let the fires engulf you or have the entire raid stand in one direction and simply eat the arcane guns.

Phase 3: Run into any bots you see. Bomb bots are great for this.

Phase 4: Run into land mines.

General Vezax

Wipes when: Healers run out of juice with no Saronite vapors around. Lack of interrupts on Vezax. Tank faces a super saiyan General Vezax who dishes out 50000 damage. Yeah. Happened to us before too. Not pretty.

Methods: Stand in a Saronite vapos for more than 7 ticks. Hug Vezax without interrupting anything. Let him warm you up some.

Yogg-Saron

Wipes when: Anything bad that can happen will happen. Players become magically blind to the color green. It happens.

Method: Run into clouds and run into the green beams emanating from Yogg-Saron.

Kologarn is the sentinel that stands in the way between your raid group and the rest of Ulduear. He is a challenging boss guilds that are new to raiding. Like Deconstructor, victory lies in the ultimate ability of individual players.

Abilities

Eyebeams: Two ways to handle this. Run out the door or run circles on the right side of the platform. More on this later.

Stone grip: HeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s going to pluck three players in to the palm of his hand and attempt to squeeze them to death until they get broken out. The only way to break players out is by DPSing the arm. Once it takes 380000 damage, the players are released.

Execution

DPS priority is going to approach the boss in this order: Right arm, Elementals, torso. When any arm is destroyed, the torso loses the same amount of health.

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s best to call out right arm health at 5% intervals starting from 20 so your tanks know when to switch. After the right arm falls, elementals will spawn.

Two tanks are needed to hold KologarnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s attention. HeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s got a Gluth-like debuff that requires two tanks to taunt off each other. Otherwise, the debuff becomes flat out unbearable.

Dodging eye beams

When you get focused by twin green beams, you have around 2 seconds to start hustling before you get rocked. ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s two ways to handle avoiding them:

Out the door

Make a beeline for the door and down the stairs. The upside is that it presents minimal risk to the players in your raid group. The down side is if the player is too slow, they might die due to line of sight issues. As healers, we donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have to worry about this.

Laps on the right side

Have beam focused players run circles along the right side of the room. The pros and cons are the exact inverse of the bailing-out-the-door method. Focused players are well within range of healers. But poor kiting can lead to multiple casualties.

Whatever solution you choose, drill it in the heads of the rest of the raid to immediately get out of the green. The beams are extremely hard to miss. Keep your head up.

The Elemental Tank

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s happened before. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve seen the off tank gain aggo of all ads and get focused by beams at the exact same time. As a tank, heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll live for a few extra seconds but not anymore after that. Use whatever saves you can on him to help lessen the blow. Pain Suppression, Guardian Spirit and Blessing of Sacrifice work admirably.

Healing strategy

Around 6-7 healers is a good number to start with. Expect an enormous amount of raid damage being doled out. His left arm sweeps the entire raid for around 15000+. Pick two of your strongest tank healers and assign them to the main tank (this will vary as theyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re taunting off each other). Be sure to have KologarnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s target up so you can see which tank heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s presently on.

If you have access to two Resto Shamans, they can anchor the Stone Grips quite easily.

Hodir is a fight that requires a lot of movement. This boss is a big cuddly snowman who likes to spread the love, and the iceblocks. This fight will keep you on your toes.Ã‚Â

Notes about the fight:

Lots of movement

Raid wide damage

Abilities

Biting Cold – This is an aura like affect that pulses through the entire raid. This is much like the ability from Keristrasza in the nexus, you need to keep moving to keep it from stacking up on you. Each stack increases the periodic damage it deals.Ã‚Â

Freeze – This deals about 5k frost damage to all players within 10 yards of the target, it also roots the targets in place.

Flash Freeze – This encases the entire raid in blocks of ice. This is prevented by standing on snowdrifts.Ã‚Â

Icicle – Occasionally giant blocks of ice will fall from the ceiling. These deal 12,000 damage to anyone hit and have a knock back component. You can see which areas will be hit by a small circular glyph on the ground. If you are having trouble seeing the glyphs, go into your video settings and turn on Projected Textures. Before a flash freeze, a larger glyph will show on the ground before the ice falls and will leave behind Snowdrifts which must be used to avoid flash freeze.Ã‚Â

Frozen Blows – Reduces Hodir’s physical damage but adds a frost damage component to his attacks. This also has a raid wide frost damage effect.Ã‚Â

Enrage – Hodir has a 9 minute Enrage TimerÃ‚Â

Ability Examples:

Ã‚Â Ã‚Â Ã‚Â Ã‚Â

Ã‚Â Icicle

Ã‚Â

Ã‚Â Snowdrift

Ã‚Â

Ã‚Â Freeze

NPCs

Hodir also comes with a selections of NPC’s that must be broken out of their icy prisons. There will be four on normal and 8 on heroic. The npc’s consists of the following.Ã‚Â

2x Druids: The druids are hard to miss, they’re in boomkin form. When you break them out they DPS Hodir but also cast Starlight which increases the attack speed of anyone standing in it by 100%

2x Shaman: The shamans DPS Hodir elemental style and will occasionally cast Storm Cloud on a raid member. This ability lets you buff several raid members with Storm Power which increases their critical strike damage by 135%

2x Mages: The mages will help try to break fellow NPCs out of ice blocks and will cast a Toasty Fire. The fire is literally a camp fire on the ground, but it fights off the effects of biting cold. Falling ice and Flash Freeze will wipe out the fire.Ã‚Â

2x Priests: The priests will smite and occasionally throw out a heal, but most importantly they will cast Dispel Magic to free players from the effects of Freeze

Execution

Your raid will head in following the Main Tank. The tank will take Hodir back towards the rear of the room. DPS will begin by breaking out the NPCs. After all the NPCs have been broken out, DPS can start in on Hodir. When DPS first engages Hodir it is a good time to blow Heroism / Bloodlust. Healers should move into position to be near the Main Tank while everyone else needs to move into position around the raid. DPS continues on Hodir until he is about to cast Flash Freeze. Everyone needs to move to the Snowdrifts to avoid being frozen. After the Flash Freeze any raiders who were frozen should be broken free ASAP. DPS will then begin on the NPCs again until all are free, and then will resume DPS on Hodir. Rinse and repeat until the big guy is done.Ã‚Â

Healing Hodir

Healing Hodir has two major components,Ã‚Â

Main Tank – Three healers should be assigned to the main tank. They should be in close proximity at all times and moving with the tank as needed. Grace from a Disc Priest helps even out the damage from Hodir.Ã‚Â

Raid – The rest of the healers should be spread out along the outside of the raid to cover as many raiders as possible.Ã‚Â

All healers will be moving quite a bit during this fight, dodging falling ice and shaking off the effect of bitting cold until the NPC’s are broken loose. Shamans will be using a lot of Riptide and Lesser Healing Wave, Druids will be right at home rolling HoTs, Paladins will be using quick Flash Heals, as well as priests utilizing renews and quick heals. It is possible to toss out a longer cast heal such as Greater Heal or Chain Heal and move before biting cold stacks, as long as you can find yourself aÃ‚Â rhythmÃ‚Â for move and cast. Your main goal as healers should be to find a Toasty Fire close enough to the raid to sit on. If you have the Toasty Fire buff, you can spam heals without worry of stacking Biting Cold. Since the rest of the raid will be moving around though, be prepared to move to keep people in range. Once you learn to balance the movement and the heals the fight is pretty straight forward.

HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a rather unconventional approach to killing Ignis which utilizes the side of the instance. Using this method does appear to be rather cheesy, but it takes a lot of pressure off many players. Credit this to Kimbo for figuring this out. Ignis is one of the early optional bosses youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll encounter first in Ulduar. I recommend working on Razorscale first before doubling back to the Furnace Master.

Quick notes

Standard tank and spank

Periodic Constructs will activate

Abilities

Scorch – All enemies in front of Ignis will take quick dot damage for 3 seconds (ticks every half-a-second). Constructs within the area will start to heat up and become Molten.

Flame Jets – Geysers of flame shoot up from the ground and throw raid members up into the air. If the Flame Jets connect while a player is casting, theyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll be interrupted for 8 seconds. Targets take fire damage over 8 seconds.

Slag Pot – Ignis will charge a player and grab them tossing them into his Slag Pot (the pot hanging around his waist).

Activate Construct – Activates a Construct with 3.8 million health.

Strength of the Creator – When a Construct is active, damage done by Ignis is increased by 15%. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a stacking buff. When a Construct is taken out, the stack is removed.

Ability examples

Scorch on the ground

Construct

HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a shot of some of the melee players in the air after a Flame Jet.

Setup

HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s our non-conventional setup. If you look to your left and right, youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll see two pools of water that are surrounded by a ledge. Start heading for the one on the left (facing Ignis) thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s nearest the entrance ramp. All ranged DPS and healers should stand on the ledge.

The reason you want to set up in this position is to think back to the days of Starcraft where players set up choke points for enemies to go through. Constructs that spawn, if their aggro is gained by a ranged player, will have to run all the way into the pool and then up the ramp in order to take out a player (green path). The extra distance the Construct has to run should be more than enough time for your off tank to attract the ConstructÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s attention.

Main tank

Your tankÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s going to be running laps along the red path. The ranged group should not be affected by Scorches. Your healers are going to have to strafe along the blue arrow to maintain range with the tank. The upper line is a little under 40 yards.

Execution

Once Ignis is engaged, your main tank will pick him up and start keeping him moving in a roundabout fashion pictured above. After a period of time has passed, Ignis will begin to activate Constructs. Off tanks need to snatch them up and bring them into Scorched areas and hold them in there until they turn Molten. When it hits 20 stacks, it becomes Brittle.

What do you get when you combine something incredibly hot with something incredibly cold? The object becomes extremely brittle. Same thing applies here. The chance to crit the Construct increases. Damage done over 5000 will effectively kill it. Be sure to target BrittleÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d Constructs with your ranged players as they explode dealing damage to players in close proximity.

Have players keep an eye on Flame Jets. If spellcasters are caught casting when Flame Jet connects, theyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re locked out of casting for 8 seconds. Not good if youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re a healer.

Healing

There are four healing areas to cover in this fight:

Main tank Ã¢â‚¬â€œ One healer should be enough but other healers will need to keep HoTs as active as possible especially with numerous Constructs.

Off tank Ã¢â‚¬â€œ If there are Constructs up, your off tank is going to need heals as well.

Slag Pot Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Ignis is going to charge and pick up a player and toss them into his sack. While in his sack, they will take 5000 damage every second for 10 seconds. Keep a dedicated raid healer on Slag Pot duty. If thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s no one in there, that healer then returns back to healing the raid.

Healers wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be able to cast too many spells in there. But healers with instant spells should be able to cast them as much as they can. Priests, for example, can Holy Nova while inside the pot.

Raid Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Flame Jet and Scorched melee players are going to involve the bulk of the healing here. Chain Healing Shamans will be at their finest especially since ranged players will be strafing along the ledge. After getting hit by a Flame Jet, I will personally light up a few Holy Novas while IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m in the air.

I managed to squeeze some PTR time on this boss earlier in the weeks before. But hereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a step-by-step break down of what you need to do in order to get through the encounter.

Quick notes

Vehicular fight

Trash should be cleared using your vehicles

After ~two attempts on the boss, trash will respawn (not sure if thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a link to time)

Four towers control the difficulty of the boss

Vehicle health is based on item level not stats

Map

Trash phase

This is not a Hyjal style waves encounter. Your raid group will have access to vehicles first. When your raid is ready to move out, speak to Brann Bronzebeard to engage the Iron army.

(Click image for dialogue)

Tower information

Your targets are the four towers throughout the area. The difficulty level of Flame Leviathan can be controlled based on which towers you leave up. Towers are easily identifiable because of the color of their glow. Location of the towers are shown in the map above. Use your vehicles to bring them down.

Storm beacons will summon additional units. Destroy them to stem the tide of incoming spawning mobs.

Roles and vehicular abilities

There are different roles that each vehicle plays. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll break them down below.

Hurl boulder: Throws a really big rock at variable range. Think Wintergrasp or Strands type. Ignites Tar upon impact. Hurl pyrite barrel: Using 5 pyrite, will do ~30000 damage Ram: Damage and knockback effect Throw passenger: Used only when the passenger is in the catapult. Dwarf tossing is finally a reality (important)

Siege Engines

The Flame Leviathan will only lock on to one siege engine at a team. The targeted engine must kite the boss around.

Non-kiting siege engines will have to stay close to the rear of the Leviathan as much as possible and should interrupt Flame Jets. After 30 seconds, Flame Leviathan will switch and target a different Siege Engine and chase after that. Use Steam Rush to build up some distance.

HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a kite path you can try out.

Blue line: Opening route. The boss will be weapons free at this time (as in engage-able).

Siege engine passengers should be targeting pyrite ammo thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s floating in the air. If there arenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t any available, switch fire to the boss.

If youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re out of siege engines, FL will go after demolishers or choppers.

Choppers

There should be 1 chopper following the targeted siege engine. Choppers will be laying down tar directly in front of the Flame Leviathan to slow him down and the tar can be ignited by Boulders from demolishers.

Choppers also have to extract the FL Unit (explained further).

Demolishers

Stay as far away as you can. DPS with Hurl Boulder. Firing Pyrite Barrels should be held off until FL is stunned.

Demo passengers not being thrown up will need to work the catapult to load up Pyrite.

Flame Leviathan stun unit

Your demolishers have the capability to launch players onto the Flame Leviathan. The FL unit is going to comprise of:

3 DPS (Suggest Druid, Death Knight, Rogue)

1 Healer (Suggest Paladin or Druid)

I suggested those classes because theyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re going to be under fire from various guns while up there. YouÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll want maximum survivability.

Both players must be in the passenger seat of the demolisher. ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s an ability called Ã¢â‚¬Å“Load into CatapultÃ¢â‚¬Â which places them in the throwing arm of the demo as a projectile. When itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s called for, your demoÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s close in. The driver then hits Ã¢â‚¬Å“Throw passengerÃ¢â‚¬Â which launches the passengers on top of the Flame Leviathan.

When the FL unit is on the back of the boss, they will be able to take out all 4 turrets. When the turrets explode, thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a button. You hit the button which starts a 10 second channel resulting in a stunned boss and a damage taken by Flame Leviathan by 50% and resetting his speed.

The FL unit will then be ejected and parachuted off the boss. Your choppers must swoop in and extract them back to the demolishers. YouÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll want to stun Leviathan while heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s in a tarÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d area.

Video

For a visual Ã¢â‚¬Å“how toÃ¢â‚¬Â, see this video below. Actual encounter starts around 20 seconds or so in. Note the positioning of siege engines and how the tar is laid out.

HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a list of all spellcaster related weapons that drop from Ulduar. Items are sorted in the rough order of progression that raiding groups will be going in. I linked all currently known spellpower weapons and off hands so that your raid group can get a general idea of what item to go for and what items are better off in the hands of other players along with the rough order they will appear in. It seems heroic mode drops slightly more weapons. Loot tables for some of the bosses are still unknown at this time (like Yogg-Saron and Algalon). Read the bottom of the post for a theory of tier gear drops.

Tier gear

All we know right now is that Mimiron drops tier 8 gloves. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m assuming Yogg-Saron either drops the chest or the helm. I have a sneaking suspicion the other 3 Titans (Freya, Hodir, Thorim) drop the other 3 tier 8 pieces. My theory is unconfirmed, however. But I think itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a decent assumption that the 4 titans along with the Ã¢â‚¬Å“endÃ¢â‚¬Â boss of the instance are the ones that drop the tier pieces.

There’s been a few updates about Val’nyr since the last time I wrote about it. Now we have some more information regarding the retrieval and construction of the legendary mace. Here are the Coles’ notes version:

30 fragments

Step 1: Bring shattered fragments to the Archivum Console

Step 2: Throw the shattered fragments into Yogg-Saron’s maw while he is casting Deafening Roar

Kill Yogg-Saron and loot

Condition 1: Can only be completed in Ulduar Heroic mode

Condition 2: If at least one Ulduar Watcher is not assisting you

This leads me to conclude a few things.

First is that it appears the person who is collecting all the fragments does not have to be the same person who ends up with the constructed mace. After all, the fragments must be thrown into Yogg-Saron who must then be killed. The loot master should then find the completed mace on the loot table of the old god.

This means the fragments can be looted to any one person as a keeper until the guild collects the necessary amount of fragments.

Second is that the construction of this weapon is going to be out of the reach of many of the casual oriented raiding guilds due to the conditions needed.

Some more questions remain

What happens if the raid group fails at killing Yogg-Saron during that attempt? Or even during that week? Are the fragments lost?

Lastly, it seems that PTR build 9767 (the most recent) was pushed through mostly for bug fixes. Since the latest build was meant to fix stuff, we can assume then the patch is very close to completion. I do believe 3.1 will be here sometime this April. Two weeks.

A good indicator that the patch will be coming out soon is when PTR servers shut down.

Undying and Immortal two achievements that are on paper really easy to get, but in practice seem to be fiendishly difficult.

Below are some random tips to hopefully help you all get some of the coolest titles in the game.

Do Razuvious first Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Until you kill a boss you arenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t saved and thus have no raid ID to be marked as Ã¢â‚¬Å“Contains Dead PeopleÃ¢â‚¬Â should the mind controllers mess up and get someone killed, simply wipe the fight, disband the group and reform it with someone else as the leader and try again!

Use scrolls Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Lucky you scribes, you finally serve a purpose! Especially in 10 man you arenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t going to have every buff, for example IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m frequently mage-less, a quick scroll of Intellect later and IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m a happy man, Scrolls of Fortitude are also a life saved!

Buff up properly Ã¢â‚¬â€œ It really is serious business, donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t skimp on consumables!

Die on trash, lots Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Its fun and doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t endanger the achievement!

Use Divine Intervention during trash Ã¢â‚¬â€œ If you are a Paladin the last thing you want to do is somehow DI someone during a boss fight, keep it permanently on cool down (Stupid as it sounds I have heard of this happening)

Take it steady – its not a DPS race.

Take three(normal) or seven(heroic) healers – its much better to have bored healers than stressed healers.

DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t try and do all the other achievements on the same run!

DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be afraid to sit someone out for a while - the achievement is granted to all players who take part in the Kel Thuzad kill on a clean raid ID. If you have someone who really canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t dance for example then get them to sit the fight out!

Health Potions and Health Stones are your friends – DPSers, use them!

If a DK dies while under the effect of Shadow of Death then its okay! HeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not dead yet!

Having Undead in your raid doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t make the achievement impossible, despite the contradictory nature of their bios, Forsaken arenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t dead! (or are they and when ever you resurrect one you are killing it :/ )

Relax and have fun!

ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s also one extra tip that I have not been able to personally verify, there seems to be some strong evidence kicking around that only deaths from Baron Rivendare countÃ¢â‚¬Â¦. I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know for sure, but my advice is if someone doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t die to him but does to one of other horsemen donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t give up and keep going, you might still get it!

It is done. Approximately 24 hours since the experience and epiphany I had last night, it all paid off.

Sarth and his 3 drakes are down.

Twilight Drake

A big thank you goes to everyone in the guild. Without their efforts of them, the assistance of the Plus Heal Community, and the various bloggers whoÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve written about their experiences, this post would not be here right now.

The handling of the Drake was flattering. The officers and an overwhelming majority of the guild felt that I should have gotten the first one.

Needless to say, I double checked to make sure.

The last thing I want on my hands is a riot because the GM gets awarded the first Drake. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m not one for mounts. Even though I made a Flying Carpet, I still ride on my purple Gryphon. But I guess the Gryphon will get rested for a while.

Subsequent mount drops will be handled with interested members rolling instead of the loot master doing a raid roll. This gives players a measure of control and it allows players who donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t care about the mount to opt out of rolling for the ones that do.

My hands were shaking once we got that Shadron down. It was the first time we hit that plateau and after that, it just felt like smooth sailing from there.

Total time spent: ~8 hours on just 3 Drakes aloneTime of death: 7:04 PM PST, January 28

Extra things

These points may be minor, but they might help you. We increased the healing from 6 to 7. This gave us 2 Paladins. The fight took slightly longer, but it paid off.

Now what these Paladins did was they spent 17 points into Protection to pick up Divine Guardian.

The moment I used my Pain Suppression on the first breath, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d pick one Paladin and tell them to bubble. Since a majority of the raid members are standing together, this helps mitigate raid damage during that period. On the second save, the Druid tank on Sarth popped his Barksin and Survival Instincts to outlive that breath hit. At this point, if it goes off, I alert the Holy Priest to get into position because his Guardian Spirit is up next.

Reader Rivendael brought up a great comment that I wanted to reiterate:

Hi Matt, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m surprised that you have to watch the animations at all

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s very responsible of you, considering that most healers need to/are very used to watching mainly health bars, but in the end, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d say that the job of watching for breath cooldowns should in fact fall on the tank.

As my guildÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s druid tank on Sarth (weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve downed 3D), even before the fight, I establish player orders for the cooldowns weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re using. When Vesp lands, I call for the first cd-user to Ã¢â‚¬Å“prepÃ¢â‚¬Â (usually all my healing pallies and priests). When I see the breath animation, I call for the prepped player to use his cd. Then I call for the next player to prepare. And so forth.

My healers just need to macro their cd to me and be in range, thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s all, and I take the burden off them so they can -visually- focus on their heals, while dodging lava walls and void zones. As the one player facing SarthÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s bigass head all the time, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the least I can do. Since your Sarth tank obviously has a mic, why not suggest that he do the same?

The answer to that is we both do it. The Sarth tank and I are able to watch for his head. As a healer, I like to use IceHUD so that I can see the health bar of my target, the health bar of myself, and the action thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s going around. This goes hand in hand with my heads up technique of healing.

The Ã¢â‚¬Å“double affirmativeÃ¢â‚¬Â from the Sarth tank and myself strengthens our judgment. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s better to have two pairs of eyes on it if possible. It helps confirm that it is the right time to use a save when two players are saying the same thing. While thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s nothing wrong with allowing SarthÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s tank to call out when to use the save, I prefer keeping my head up instead of relying on reflexes to hit the tank.

Either weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re both right or weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re both wrong.

I do have a video from a DPS perspective. Just need to find a suitable host. Any ideas of a Youtube or Filefront alternatives?

Also: Ner’Zhul is ridiculously PvE competitive. We’re in the top 20 of guilds that have successfully killed Sarth 3D.

Epic

About me

My name is Matticus and this is my World of Warcraft blog. Here you can read about my thoughts regarding healing as a priest. As a guild master, I also write about guild and raid related topics. The blog has expanded to include thoughts from other regular contributors. The aim of this blog is to help you grow and improve. My unending goal is to have something relevant and useful in every post. or more, you can check out my columns on WoW Insider. Visit theGuildmasters to talk shop with other GMs, raid leaders, and officers. Or if you're looking to join a guild, check out my guild Conquest.